Masha Albrecht

malbrecht@berkeley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Ms. Albrecht has been a math educator for over 20 years. She has been involved in teacher training, textbook editing, curriculum development. Her teaching experience had been in many districts around the country, from urban to rural. She is especially interested in the different representations of mathematics that help students understand, uncluding kinesthetic and technological models. She is distressed by the recent focus on testing in the broader educational community. Ms. Albrecht is a Berkeley resident with three young children in the Berkeley schools.

Alex Angell

aangell@berkeley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Before he became a teacher, Alex Angell spent 18 years as an investment advisor in the international capital markets. He chose teaching as a second career partly because he is “fascinated by history and the challenge of teaching it, and partly out of a sense of civic virtue – to give something back to my community.” Angell asks, “If we don’t tell our children the stories, how are they going to know?”

Angell sees his teaching style as "old school” in that it’s teacher centered. He regards himself not as a Historian but as a “Storyteller,” passing on the accumulated knowledge of our history. Angell looks to give his students what he calls “a thorough grounding in ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ - World History.” He helps students develop the literary skills they need to be able to express an intelligent opinion: a point of view which makes reference to specific facts and events. Angell’s students use examples from the curriculum to identify the causal relationships between seemingly unrelated events.

Angell says an added bonus to teaching for him is being able to return each summer to the island of Kaphalonia with his wife, who is Greek. There he spends his time relaxing, playing guitar, working on curriculum for the upcoming year, and grilling goats.

He went to The Putney School and UC Santa Cruz, where he earned a B.A. in History.

Matthew Carton

mcarton@berkeley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Matt Carton has begun his ninth year at Berkeley High - during five of which he was the lead teacher for Academic Choice. For the 2010-11 school year Mr. Carton teaches three sophomore English classes, one section of Bible as Literature, and one section of AP Literature. He lives in Oakland with his wife, Michelle, and daughter, Victoria (the latter of whom who will graduate from Berkeley High in 2020).

Rachel Chodorow-Reich

rachelcr@berkeleyhigh.us

Best way to contact: Email

Rachel Chodorow-Reich is from Berkeley, California. This year she is teaching two different world history classes- one to freshmen, and one to relative newcomers to the United States. In both classes she enjoys having students from many backgrounds who also teach her every day. Before pursuing her life-long dream of being a high school history teacher Rachel spent 2 years doing administrative work at Google, thinking about what skills students need to successfully solve problems in innovative and fun ways. Before her foray into the corporate world full of many perks including free gourmet meals, Rachel spent almost 10 years teaching and empowering diverse youth at urban schools, leadership organizations, summer camps, and conferences. She especially enjoyed her work in youth-led organizations. Rachel’s historical interests include 1. Anything that helps explain why there is poverty and violence in the world and how people have worked to end it, 2. Examples of people trying to create more just, creative, happy communities and societies, or 3. Anything related to human identity and psychology. Outside of school Rachel enjoys hiking amongst trees, rivers, and mountains, doing yoga, and occasionally baking bread!

Amanda Green

agreen@berkeley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Amanda Green describes her approach to teaching as eclectic. “I believe all of my students come to me with their own unique set of knowledge, skills, and talent. My goal as a teacher is to meet them where they are and help them be successful as they define it.”

After starting a small press publishing company and editing a literary magazine, Green realized she wanted to work with young writers. High school teaching seemed the perfect place to do so. Her work with the Challenging White Supremacy Workshop in San Francisco also drew her to teaching, as she became convinced she could do the most useful work for social justice as a teacher. What she likes most about teaching at BHS is “the entirely freaky population of people,” who do not fit easily into a standard mold.

Green’s favorite memory of her own high school experience was graduating from it. She explains, “I went to an extremely small public school in rural New York after growing up on a farm. Outside of sports and theater there was not much to do besides work. I got myself to a city as quickly as possible.”

Green received her B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1998, where she double majored in Film Studies and English. She earned her Masters degree from San Francisco State University in 2007. She has been teaching at BHS since 2003.

Her favorite movies include The Wild Bunch, Full Metal Jacket, Brick, Donnie Darko, City of God, Out of the Past, and Bunny Lake is Missing. Favorite books include Huck Finn, When the Elephants Dance, Fahrenheit 451, The Dispossessed, The Gone People, Un Lun Dun, and The Cat in the Hat.

She spends her summers training in the martial arts, traveling, and being a better friend.

Ira Holston

iholston@berkeley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Ira Holston has been a math and science educator in the East Bay for 21 years. This includes 10 years as a math teacher here at BHS, 4 years of urban school math outreach in Oakland and Richmond, and 7 years teaching earth science, physics and math at Bishop O'Dowd HS in Oakland. He has a MS in Geology (Thesis: The Cracked Cretaceous Selma Chalk) from Auburn University in Alabama. "I have a teaching credential in math and earth science from SF State. My non-working hours are spent with my family; traveling to Asia, Europe, and Central America; home wine making; bicycling; backpacking; and anything else outdoors when I get the chance.

Evy Kavaler

ekavaler@berkeley.net

Best way to contact: Email

II was raised in the Berkeley area and always wanted to be at BHS. Well, I am here now and have been teaching science here at BHS since 1991. Before I taught science, I worked as a staff scientist in research labs in Berkeley and San Francisco. I have taught almost every science class offered at BHS and am currently teaching AP Chemistry and Biotechnology. I am the science department co-lead teacher. I believe that every student should love science as much as I do and should understand about how science is such an important factor in our every day lives and how it can help us understand the world around us. I also love sports (skiing/snowboarding, bicycling, tennis) and the outdoors.

Mathew Laurel

mlaurel@berkley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Matthew Laurel began his young teaching career at Berkeley High School as a student teacher under the guidance and mentorship of skillful AC English veterans, David Bye and Madalyn Theodore, in 2009. Holding a B.A. in English Literature and a Credential from San Francisco State University, Laurel strives to create transformative experiences for Berkeley High's beautifully diverse population of students.

Laurel imagines himself as a bit of a renaissance man. "I'm into old school, underground Hip-Hop and Virginia Woolf. In my classroom you might find a poster of the Notorious B.I.G. next to a self-portrait of Caravaggio or lyrics to a Talib Kweli track alongside a passage from Wuthering Heights. If I weren't teaching, I'd probably be traveling the world as an international soccer hooligan, lost in a mad universe of colors and colloquialisms.

As one of the younger teachers at BHS, Laurel describes his growth and assimilation into the culture of the school as a surreal and dynamic experience. "I always tell my students that one of the simplest ways to succeed in life is to just find something that they love doing and get a little bit better at it everyday. I feel this way about teaching; I want to be a better teacher on Thursday than I was on Wednesday. I want to teach English to show students the infinite wonder and power of language. I want to help them to realize that even within this cruel, unjust, and tumultuous reality, they are bound by nothing-their limitless potential is itching to be unlocked and unleashed onto the waiting world.

Tim Moellering

Tim Moellering passed away on January 18, 2011. His memory lives on at BHS AC, and one of the two AC houses is named after him - Moellering House.

Tim Moellering says he thought about becoming a rock star, but when Sting gave up teaching to become a rock star, he chose to even things out: “I decided I could give up becoming a rock star to become a teacher.” He has a B.A. in History and Single Subject Credentials in History and English from UC Berkeley. He has been teaching since 1980 and has taught at BHS since 2002.

Moellering tries to create a comfortable classroom environment where students want to be. He believes, “The rest will fall into place because all students want to learn.” The diversity at BHS is what Moellering likes best about teaching here.

His favorite book is Catch 22, and his favorite movie is The Life of Brian. Moellering enjoys listening to music, studying history, and coaching.

When asked to reveal something that people would be surprised to learn about him, Moellering offered an ironic recollection from his own educational experiences. “ I used to cut school constantly when I went to King, along with several other friends, all of whom became teachers.”

Dan Plonsey

dplonsey@berkley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Dan Plonsey grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, attending Heights High, a large, diverse school that is very similar to Berkeley High. He graduated from Yale with a BA in math and music, and from Mills College, with an MA in music composition. He received his teaching credential at Mills as well. In addition to being a math teacher, Plonsey is a composer and saxophonist (recent performances include an opera with Harvey Pekar called "Leave Me Alone!" and "Dan Plonsey's Bar Mitzvah"). Plonsey believes that all students can learn math, especially when they receive good support from those around them. He believes that we study math for many reasons, not least of which is to learn to enjoy noticing, remarking upon, and explaining the many patterns that exist in all aspects of life.

Sam Rozen

srozen@berkley.net

Best way to contact: Email

I was born and raised in a small town in southeast Iowa. In high school I played soccer and ran track. It was during this time that a prior teacher of mine gave me the opportunity to teach at his creative problem-solving summer camp. This experience opened my eyes to the joys of teaching. After high school I attended the University of Iowa, where I graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Science Education. While I am endorsed to teach both Geoscience and Chemistry, I have taught Chemistry exclusively since graduating in 2008.

After college I taught at a high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before moving to the Berkeley area in the summer of 2009. Last school year I worked two assignments as a long-term substitute at Berkeley High School; one for two months in the Arts and Humanities Academy, the other for four months in Academic Choice. I have really enjoyed my time teaching at Berkeley High School, and look forward to the school year ahead.

In my spare time I enjoy exercising, watching sports, photography, reading, and spending time with friends. I have an older brother and sister who live in Phoenix, AZ and Tampa, FL, respectively. The rest of the family is spread throughout Florida, so I enjoy heading south to visit during the holidays and logging some quality beach time.

Colleen Simon-O'Neill

cso@berkley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Colleen Simon-O'Neill grew up in Southern California, and earned a B.S. in Genetics from UC Davis (2001). She was a coxswain on the UCD crew team for four years, and is a self-professed rowing addict. She is currently coaching the novice women's rowing team at Berkeley High. Simon-O'Neill is also one of the mentor teachers in the SF Exploratorium's Teacher Leadership Program. She mentors a group of new science teachers, and teaches pedagogy workshops at the Exploratorium two Saturdays a semester. She loves the Exploratorium because everything is spinning, whirring, and making crazy noises. Simon-O'Neill has been teaching science in CA public high schools since 2002, and landed at BHS in 2009. She believes that science should be fun, messy, and thought provoking. She would like all her students to develop into critical thinkers, questioners and writers. Some things you may not know about Simon-O'Neill: She completed 4 triathlons (2 were half-ironman triathlons), swam from Alcatraz twice (even though she is not a great swimmer), studied in Granada, Spain for one year, can crochet a mean granny square, and loves to read.

Zora Tammer

ztammer@berkeley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Leslie Tebbe

lestebbe@mindspring.com

Best way to contact: Email, or by phone at 510-594-8480

Leslie Tebbe began teaching at Berkeley High in 2004, as a student teacher. She says she loves the complexity of BHS students, and their understanding of the world around them. “I came to Berkeley High because I had met a number of adults in my life who had gone to BHS, and they had a certain flair that was truly unique. Now I see why. It is an incredible community, with incredible parents, that thrives off of its proximity to lives different than its own.”

Tebbe describes her teaching style as very rigorous. She says her classroom is very structured, with clear, predictable expectations. She says she expects students to think critically and to be proactive, diligent, and invested.

Tebbe says her own experience in high school influenced her decision to become a teacher. “I believe that I struggled unnecessarily in high school, especially with writing. Therefore, I wanted to impart strategies I’ve discovered to avoid feeling unprepared for or incapable of, higher level work. I don’t think students need to wait until college to do really impressive thinking that motivates them and makes them passionate about education. This kind of passion, in turn, helps writing skills develop.”

Tebbe attended a high school as large as BHS, and she says she appreciated the anonymity and the opportunity to experience different perspectives that a school of this size provides. She says this includes the opportunity “to be an observer, and to recognize both the differences and similarities between people or varying backgrounds. And then, to participate, through social interaction, in worlds vastly different form our own.”

Faulkner and Steinbeck are among Tebbe’s favorite authors. Favorite movies include Adaptation, The Thin Man series, The Graduate, and The 400 Blows. Tebbe grew up singing in church choirs, and very much misses that experience. She says her job has greatly diminished her hobbies, and she tends to love simple things, like going to the farmer’s market, having a long dinner with friends, listening to music, or watching a great movie. She spends time in the summers with her extensive family, many of whom live on the East Coast.

Madalyn Theodore

mtheodore@berkeley.net

Best way to contact: Email

Madalyn Theodore began her teaching career at BHS in the mid 1990’s. She describes her teaching style as open, creative, academic, and fun. She became a high school teacher because she enjoys “being around an age group that has so much potential.”

Theodore says her heroes include her grandmother, her husband, Emmett and Mamie Till, and Chef Ramsay. She likes reading the Classics, and she loves animation. She enjoys cooking, sleeping, and reading during the summer.

Theodore has a B.A. from the University of Illinois and an M.A. in English and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.